The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
